All music recorded at one of the various incarnations of Flow Control studios over the years (We're up to version 8.0 now), most under the name Cathode Ray Tube though some are under the following monikers: Brittney Sparse, Ampron Aubide (with Matthew P. Stearns) The Dubtologist, Uncle Wriggily, Charles R. Terhune and Super Barrio Mothers.

Below is my discography which I do my best to keep up to date. If it's not let me know, please? Thanks and enjoy.

INVISIBLE SOUNDTRACKS / THE VOID AND OTHER STRUCTURES / JOURNEY TO OUTER ABYSSINIA AND BEYOND / TRIUMPH OF A HORSE CALLED RADIOMAN / ATLAS OF MIGRAINE / THE FROZEN YEARS / THE NEW TAXONOMY | RUST REMIXED | FAMOUS MONSTERS | LIFE AMONG THE RUST | ABYSSALIA | EXODUS PARTNERS | URBAN PATTERNING EP | WELCOME TO GHOST COUNTRY | TRIBAL MALFUNCTIONS EP | BLACK STARSHIP SELASSIE | LIVING IN THE CITY OF THY SO CALLED GOD (AND4) | THE ASTROGATRIX SOUNDTRACK | THE DIAMOND BODY | SURRENDERER | UNCOMFORTABLE | THE BIRDY EP | MUSIC IS A PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED | THE MOUNTAIN SISTERS | COLD GETTIN' ILL ITH UNCLE WRIGGILY | MAKING THE MOST OUT OF LIFELIKE TARGETS | SQUASH EP | SUBZERO SENSEI | MICROARRAY | OLD ORGANICS >>>

INVISIBLE SOUNDTRACKS

"This album in particular might be the best I've heard from him. Reminds me of that feeling as a kid in the late nineties, listening to Dead Cities or Orblivion for the first time. So many twists and turns, such impeccable sound design. I'd be willing to wager this would be right up many folks alleys in here." - Extralife

THE VOID AND OTHER STRUCTURES

“The Void and Other Structures” marks yet another chapter in the evolution of Cathode Ray Tube’s music. Here we find CRT moving even deeper into unknown territory. The album toys with opposing elements in a variety fo ways: glitchy distortion versus clean sounds, melody versus dissonance, harmony versus threnody. “I’m learning to let go a little bit,” says CRT. “As a human I’m blinded by the illusion of control. Yet as a musician I craft songs with a great deal of control, proing and fretting over every second of every note, every tone and and every beat. Apply too much control and you choke out your muse. But let go of it and you allow space to appear and from that space new ideas emerge.”

Song like ‘Fumes,’ the album’s opener, pump with crisp arpeggiated synths, thudding beatboxes and atmospherics galore. Other tracks like “Nautiloid Reach” and “Dead River Dub” teeter on the edge of chaos like the fever dream of someone binge watching nature and conspiracy theory documentaries simultaneously. “Antipodean,” the album’s closer, offers a lighter, almost elegiac coda to a diverse collection of songs.

As one listens it’s as if there are deep forces at work in CRT’s music. Many of the tracks have the feel of rituals performed in dark chambers, evoking unknown spirits from numinous realms. “I’m not going to argue with that,” says CRT, laughing. “I mean a void is a space with a negative structure if you think about it. Just as music is informed by sielnce and the space in between the notes, a void can be informed by mattter in between and around empty spaces.”

Suitable for the dance floor or midnight drives, “The Void And Other Structures” shows Cathode Ray Tube’s commitment to pushing ever forward, ever onward in his restless quest for new sounds.

CRT as Brittney Sparse

TRIUMPH OF A HORSE CALLED RADIOMAN is the latest release from Brittney Sparse. Previous release have included the album UNCOMFORTABLE and the BIRDY ep. RADIOMAN is a 6 track deep foray into four on the floor territory, rife with the clang and crinkle of 909's. deep bass and hollow reverbs. As Cathode Ray Tube, CRT has made no effort to hide his techno influences such as Juan Tejada, Joey Beltran, Orbital, Drexciya, Kenny Larkin, Moby and others. Here he combines the old school with the new, welding glitchy dub into arpeggios and drones. The mixture results in tones reminiscent of Deadbeat, Jon Hopkins, Diego, Meat Beat Manifesto's "Kasmo EP" and Blamstrain.

ATLAS OF MIGRAINE

Atlas Of Migraine details an expansive foray through the ventricles of intelligent dub music, mustering up hundreds of ideas that disperse evenly upon its technoid infused landscape. - Igloo Magazine.

“Atlas of Migraine” is a journey through the darkness of pain into the light of relief and release. Says CRT “I hope you enjoy this album, this exploration of an internal topography not seen by many. And I hope it induces no pain but instead frees and inspires you to rise above and persevere.”

The Frozen Years covers wide sonic territories, packing a full album's worth of music into a compact package. 'Gutter Purger's' deep drop vocals meld with intergalactic trap beats. "Dormant Alchemy's" slow burn intro progresses from dark ambience into a beat heavy shuffle across icy lands. "Here We Go" binds heavy metal drums with pizzicato tones in a melancholic stroll through a wintry garden. This is followed up by the bleep-tastic funk workout on "Fresh Money Stacks." Funk continues with the skittering, glitchy hip-hop of "The Unkind Rewind's" nods to Cabaret Voltaire, Ghislain Poirier and Tim Cosner's arson hip hop. The ESP finishes with the proto-jazz new wave romance of 'Clay Hearts (For Alice).'

BLACK STARSHIP SELASSIE

CRT as THE DUBTOLOGIST

A brief foray into deep, intergalactic, abstract alien soul dub. I've been a fan of dub ever since I heard Black Uhuru's "What Is Life" dub. From then on I sought the sound of dub in its many forms. I became a purist in the early 2000's, seeking out the sounds of Adrian Sherwood, Lee Scratch Perry, King Tubby and Augustus Pablo. Here is the result of that journey into the heavy heavy monster sound by way of white boy hard electronica. Please Enjoy!

THE NEW TAXONOMY

Cathode Ray Tube (aka Chang Terhune) embarks on perhaps his most thorough and expansive album to date. Where past releases were engorged by visceral electronic mayhem, The New Taxonomy is just as blistering, its basslines rumbling at full capacity—yet there’s a calmer, systematic order.

I'm grateful for any reviews especially the ones that like my albums! The venerable Igloo Mag said wonderful things about the record and I'm pleased as punch. It's been a long time coming out and it's great to know people are loving it.

This quote in particular is awesome:

"The New Taxonomy is effervescent in its construct—weaving elongated dub realms with ease. Low-end waves continually crash against sharpened 4/4 mechanics which blends in a kaleidoscopic, surreal dream state."

Funnily enough "Normal Kids" is in 5/4. But who's counting?!

"RUST REMODELED"Life Among The Rust Remixed

artwork, layout and design by CONDITION:HUMAN

Available now ! Rust Remodeled. Remixes and Reinterpretations of Cathode Ray Tube's Life Among the Rust from Displacer, Robert Logan, Solypsis, Production Unit Xero, Gys, & more!

FAMOUS MONSTERS

Component is now a well known label for Igloo readers. I reviewed a few releases from two of their leading projects Snowbeasts and Pattern Behavior, both recommended for fans of dark challenging releases in modern electronic / synthscaping music. Cathode Ray Tube is one interesting IDM and post-techno ambient project formed by Charles R. Terhune and previously signed by Component the last few years.

Famous Monsters is a name your price album available in digital format. It is an expanded electronic voyage through melodious spacey synth textures, spherical atmospheric sequences with occasional glitchesque experimentation. The result sounds quite like a dramatic, cinematic and discreetly lugubrious soundtrack for an imaginary metaphysical sci-movie. This is a pleasant sound excursion, gently moving with moments of haunting hypnosis. We are here at the cross of ominous dark ambient and cinematic space drone music with a fervent interest for thrilling cyber synth effects. My favorite tracks include the beautiful ethereal “Call to error” and “Deep Space Device.” The musical tendency marks a slight departure from the more abstract beat minimalism quality of albums such as Tribal Malfunctions (2014) and Urban Patterning (2015).

Famous Monsters is easily recommended for listeners of dark space ambient crossovers nestled between Biosphere, Robert Henke and Loscil for stylistic similarity.

Famous Monsters is available on Component.

LIFE AMONG THE RUST

Cathode Ray Tube’s new album “Life Among The Rust” cuts through sonic corrosion to create a new path and direction in his already formidable discography. There is something new and different in the music on “Life Among The Rust” which is the sound of hope carved from ruin and uncertainty.

CRT’s previous album “Exodus Partners” chronicled a dark period of his life where he’d lost almost everything. With that album CRT charts a fall and rise, decline and resurgence. “Life Among The Rust” reels back his frequent use of dub echo techniques and heavy distortion for a cleaner, rawer approach that yields surprising results. Piano figures heavily into the palette of “Life Among The Rust” in such tracks as ‘Lush Life’ and ‘Open Apparatus.’ There’s an overall positive vibe to it, a hopefulness not often heard in the melancholic works of CRT’s past efforts. ‘Abundance’ soars with choral vocals while ‘The Unusual Symmetry’ begins darkly but ends with a bright, chaotic glitchy jam.

But where does the rust come in? And the life that lives among it? In changing the approach and working through these ideas CRT has created something new from the old, removing rust so something else could shine through.

From rust comes rebirth and from rebirth comes new life.

LIFE AMONG THE RUST (COM250) is out now on Component Recordings

LIVING IN THE PERFECT CITY OF THY GOD (AND 4)

PLAY LOUD AND OFTEN. IGNORE WHEN PLAYING FIRST THREE TIMES. AVOID DIRECT OBSERVATION AND ABSORB DIAGONALLY.

this music is best played at full volume in EMPTY spaces such as abandoned homes, derelict municipal structures, CRUMBLING SPORTS ARENAS, condemned housing developments, abandoned amusement parks, empty condominium complexes, defunct medical facilities such as hospitals and mental institutions, casinos and unfinished mansions.

WARNING: under no circumstances may this music be played in cemeteries or sites of atrocities or used in rituals of any kind.

credits

released August 15, 2014

ABYSSALIA

“ABYSSALIA is about going deep while going dark,” says Charles Terhune aka Cathode Ray Tube. “Not going dark in the sense of radio silence but of stepping into darkness both in tone and exploring the unknown.”

These are hefty tracks in keeping with CRT’s unabashed love of noise, dub, funk and deep electronics. His influences are clear here – from Fela Kuti to King Tubby to Autechre and Parliament and back again – but it’s clearly CRT sound and vision you’re hearing. ‘Water Park’ melds gltichy, clipped beats, dub delay and reverb to conjure up faded memories giving way to new soundscapes. ‘$200 Air Jordan’s’ is the soundtrack to a back alley girl fight with a bad ending. ‘The Lesson (BlackPink4)’ is an exercise in funk – what earned CRT’s songs the genre bending title of “android slo-jams” – with heavy doses of glitch, industrial and numerous other influences. ‘Little Glass Flower’ jumps out like a daisy piercing sun bleached concrete, providing a brief and bright spot amidst the dense soundscapes of the EP’s other tracks. The EP concludes with the title track ‘Abyssalia,’ a heavy duty workout in dub atmospherics, deep end glitchery and all over weird vibes.

“I’m always exploring new territory with my music,” says CRT. “Always working out my demons, my ideas and methods all at once in my tracks. Through that process I exorcise, I heal and I evolve.”

ABYSSALIA’s a dark journey through the sound of CRT’s latest sonic state of mind. The journey may be taken alone though the path may be circuitous and lead you to strange places. You have been warned.

EXODUS PARTNERS

Cathode Ray Tube’s (CRT) music dwells in a world of broken things: broken machines, broken sounds and broken dreams. “I think of my music as the sound of decomposition over time,” he says. “My music is the sound and vision of collapsing structures where there is still beauty and form amongst the inevitable decay and entropy.”

On “EXODUS PARTNERS”, CRT’s “decomposis” method is in full effect. Beats hover on the edge of collapse, melodies crumble while deep bass frequencies threaten to prematurely return everything to the dust form whence it came. “2460 UD” is a frenzied opener to the album with rhythms crashing into each other as multiple arpeggiated melodies collide. “One Day In May” simultaneously explores beauty and darkness, evoking the works of Monolake, Orbital, Autechre, and Scuba while still forging unique territory. “The Next Mission” brings forth the darkness of Scorn and later Meat Beat Manifesto as it produces unique sonic palettes reminiscent of the soundtrack work of Cliff Martinez and The Dust Brothers. “Soundtracks are a huge inspiration to me,” says CRT. “Though my songs are the soundtrack to my life they’re applicable to films as well.” It’s not just Cathode Ray Tube who sees his work in that light.

Critics have called CRT’s music “dynamic, colorful and cinematic sounding electronic ambient that will ravish fans of 70s/80s B-grade film scores from sci-fi to thrillers and twister experimental films.” “EXODUS PARTNERS” is all of that and more, the soundtrack of one man’s journey in, out, through and beyond dark times.

EXODUS PARTNERS is out Wednesday, August 5, 2015 on Component Recordings.

A smattering of electronics fed through low end frequency tones, fellow Igloo Magazine contributor Charles R. Terhune (aka Cathode Ray Tube) drains every possible genre to its core. Post-industrial bits and bytes are crossed against soundtrack motifs, curious noise is broken up by synths and modular mayhem, elongated glitchy tentacles meander through evolved technoid spaces and eradicated rhythms echo within textured audio chambers. A seemingly momentous stream of leftfield voices, clips, clicks and disjointed bursts of melodic moments are stripped to the bone only to be reincarnated into vaporous mechanical layers of bliss and noise. This adventurous sonic passage is a definitive electronic music cross-section and as the artist describes, “Avoid direct observation. Absorb sound diagonally.” We could not have said this any better.

TRIBAL MALFUNCTIONS

Tribal Malfunctions by the multitalented artist Cathode Ray Tube is a half-dozen super elevated mechanical slab made from downtempo industrial, ambient, electro, and tribal ingredients. Synths shifted far into elongated and intertwined layers, CRT dips into abstract worlds. Slow moving bass is torn apart and shredded into an amorphous analog fabric. Scorched noise akin to Fennesz (courtesy of “Aura”) makes this trip slightly less turbulent, however, the balance of downtrodden versus crackling experimental treatments is utterly contagious and one that requires repeated listening. Closing up with definitive and slightly skewed remixes by Tonikom and label operator Raab Codec, Tribal Malfunctions is an apt title that ventures and veers into far-reaching sonic terrain.

Tribal Malfunctions is available on Component.

SURRENDERER

Dominated by guitars and other stringed machines, "Surrenderer" comprises demos and finished tracks from cathode ray tube's four and six stringed output. Song range from the dark ambience of "I Can't Wake Her Up" to the Godflesh-like apocalyptic ambience of "Gooch Keech." Stand out tracks are "Golden Ages," "(Are There) Moogs In Heaven" and "Running At Night."

released May 30, 2014

THE ASTROGATRIX (OST)

Official soundtrack album to the book The Astrogatrix.

THE DIAMOND BODY

artwork, layout and design by CONDITION:HUMAN

THE DIAMOND BODY was among first recording made at Flow Control 6.2 in Portland, Maine. It's been described as a series of soundtracks for unfilmable movies with a strong John Carpenter vibe. Sometimes I hear that comparison but most if not all of my music is definitely composed with the idea of filmic use in mind. In it I employed various methods to write a series of "perfect pop songs" created with the time limit of only three minutes and forthy-three seconds (the scientifically determined length of a perfect pop song). While the tracks themselves may not be pop they required a considerable amount of work to bring them into such a small length for an artist usually prone two seven minute plus song lengths.

THE BIRDY EP

CRT as BRITTNEY SPARSE

artwork, layout and design by CONDITION:HUMAN

THE BIRDY EP was recorded during the World Series playoffs of 2007 when the Red Sox won for the second time in over 86 years. With the curse lifted I felt freed to explore new, weird avenues of sound and composition. The album is comprised solely of a KORG ELECTRIBE ER-1 and an ELECTRIBE EA-1 used with limited VST effects. Some nice and tidy techno for a late night prowling the surface of the deep web.

MUSIC IS A PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED

artwork, layout and design by CONDITION:HUMAN

With this album my intention was to express one of the ways I felt about making music which was that each song began with a problem or equation to be solved. My role was to not just write a song but to see it through its various issues and problems until a suitable result was found to each problem a song or songs presented. It's a stark album almost more suited to the minimal techno of my Brittney Sparse music but there's more than enough IDM in there to keep glitch heads happy.

UNCOMFORTABLE

CRT as BRittney Sparse

artwork, layout and design by CONDITION:HUMAN

UNCOMFORTABLE was my first full foray into minimal techno in the Berlin style. I've long been a fan of such artists as Monolake, Porter Ricks, Snd, Plastikman and the Basic Channel label. It always amazed me how I could get so jazzed by the very simple, sparse arrangements and the very similar beats. Yet every time one of those tracks comes on I get going. This album is the result of working with a very limited set of gear and is in fact the first album done entirely in the box, i.e. within my laptop. "TUGBOAT" is a highlight, inspired by a trip I took with my family on a tugboat into Casco Bay Harbor to see the Queen Elizabeth II up closer than most people can; the fog on the trip inspired the sense of wonder and mystery about the size and shape of the lights in the darkness. "TIMESLIP" is another, an attempt to do more with less, and almost no effects.

Also included in the digital release are several bonus tracks that never quite saw the light of day including a few remixes and some alternate versions of tracks.

The album's title came from a reaction to a recording by a folk musician called "Comfortable." I took the direct opposite approach and even chose the incongruous image of sunflowers to further push against that concept. Enjoy.

THE MOUNTAIN SISTERS

artwork, layout and design by CONDITION:HUMAN

THE MOUNTAIN SISTERS were actually a real pair of Scottish sisters I knew from a yoga studio I worked at. There was nothing particularly unique about them but something about the phrase "The Mountain Sisters" conjured up an image for me of these mystical women in a mountain shrine or retreat. The original artwork was a picture I'd found via Google of these nude women wearing head scarves posing in a rocky garden. I wish I could remember the search term I used because when I lost the computer I'd recorded it on that also contained the artwork for the CD. Despite numerous searches I've never found it since.

The actual music was a big leap forward in learning the fairly new technology of VST's and HD recording. After some false starts I finally learned Logic and made most of this album with my hardware and software synths especially the venerable Pluggo. It also features quite a lot of Nord Modular which I miss some days. On this album I dug pretty deep in to the tracks, using a great deal of small edits and microedits to work over the various tracks and beats. "Snowy" and "Sacred Days" are two tracks that come to mind from this period where I learned how to create atmospheres from deep dark textures, getting a softer sound by removing the rough edges from drums or synths. The eponymous title track is almost all KORG POLY800II sequencer layered over and over on itself to create a weird but rich texture.

COLD GETTIN' ILL WITH UNCLE WRIGGILY

CRT as Uncle Wriggily

artwork, layout and design by CONDITION:HUMAN

UNCLE WRIGGILY was entirely about making some godawful noise. It was recorded around the same time as THE MOUNTAIN SISTERS but the music just didn't fit in with that album. Some of the tracks were the result of learning how to use certain plugins. Others were seeing how much crap I could pile up on top of other crap without it being too much of a mess. It's great music to play to get rid of unwanted houseguests or to remove wallpaper or vermin. Or skin. Use carefully in all situations.

MAKING THE MOST OUT OF LIFELIKE TARGETS

artwork, layout and design by CONDITION:HUMAN

I'll spare you a 9/11 story suffice it to say it hit me hard. I had to play a gig 2 nights later and it was awfully difficult to go out and do anything other than feel hopeless and watch CNN. But the show went on and I played.

The ensuing months were also weird for another reason; after graduating from a web design intensive course I watched the market for dotcom jobs dry up as 2001 wore on into one of the darker periods of American history and my life. I found myself working the dairy department of a Whole Foods, stacking yogurts while coming to terms with my own life challenges and a world where it seemed unsafe to bring up a child much less go out into daily life.

From that I worked up a collection of songs about the world I saw where fundamentalist Christians talked from air conditioned TV studios about the Muslim threat while sounding not unlike the Muslim fundamentalists calling for the death of America from caves in Pakistan. Mix that in with a few other odd tracks and you have MTMOOLT.

The title comes from some handgun manual I heard a friend mention at a party. It seemed fitting for the times we were suddenly thrust into. The songs wove into each other as did the threats to my safety and "freedom" I was seeing on a daily basis. Weird to trust more in my mailman than Pres. Bush but those were the times.

It was my first real foray into HD recording and using plugins. I did it all in Studiovision Pro just before it was shitcanned by Gibson. It was clumsy and didn't work right with my Mac especially with regard to host sync to tempo. But it was mine and worked well enough to record.

There's some rough bass playing on here in Last Days of Snow and some interesting early forays into minimal, ambient techno with Pompous Monumens. It also has one of my favorite tracks, a dark mashup of ICE-T over harsh beats in Your Pusher. All in all it's a barn burner of a message album without too much beating the point over people's heads.

THE SQUASH EP

as Charles R. Terhune

artwork, layout and design by CONDITION:HUMAN

The SQUASH EP was somewhat of a lost album for a while. Oddly enough it came from loss to begin with.

That sounds more melodramatic than it really was. Around the time of SUBZERO SENSEI there was a lot of activity on the Boston electronic scene. Not sure where that is these days but back then it was the heydey of the TONEBURST COLLECTIVE from which DJ C, DJ RUPTURE and AARON SPECTRE came out of.

Someone on the Boston IDM list came up with the idea of a show at the Harvard Squash courts in July. Pretty soon there were some bigger names attached to it like Gys, Keith Fullerton Whitman and Greg Davis. The event came together then Marumari was attached and it was on like the Donkey of Kong. I was set to play about midway through and had constructed a set of all new material (some of which would end up on Making The Most Out Of Lifelike Targets). I was rocked and set and ready to kick it.

The day of the gig it was kinda hot. And I was set up outside. I'd not counted on this and my beloved analog keyboards overheated in the sun even after I covered them. I ended up having to reassign a lot of the sounds during Marumari's set after moving my gear indoors. I honestly don't remember playing but I'm fairly certain I did.

Losing the sounds made me re-do much of the songs back in my studio. And this is the result. Some weird bonking techno, ambience and noise. The titles refer to the vegetable and the greatest squash player ever. The files got lost for the longest time until someone found them on a drive somewhere and mailed them to me. Almost totally forgotten when I heard them again I realized I'd created something pretty weird and beautiful under the hot sun in Cambridge that summer.

SUBZERO SENSEI

artwork, layout and design by CONDITION:HUMAN

SUBZERO SENSEI was my one and only release on my short-lived, poorly run and fondly remembered record label.

There's something pretty amazing about holding a box of your own CDs in your hands. It was the first time I'd created a CD from the ground up and had it printed. From the music to the layout it was all me. Which was pretty rad. I remember working so hard to make the actual disc look like Amber by Autechre; all black and silver with very small precise type.

The music is somewhat of another story. I love most of the songs on the album but in retrospect wish I'd sequenced it differently. So with hindisght being 20/20 this Bandcamp version differs from the CD version as the sequence is what it should have been. Trust me, it works.

All songs were recorded to DAT from StudioVision Pro which handled the MIDI. I did a couple takes, messing with FX in real time. Tracks were then edited in Bias Peak and further messed with. No mastering really just normalized.

The songs themselves have some of my favorites. XA1 & XA2 are two side of a coin with one fast one slow. Both have a sample of a certain royal guitar player pitched and stretched to hell and back. Both have some deep ass bass courtesy of my old AKAI S1000 sampler's pure sine wave sample. Tremble may very well have been my first foray into minimal techno and was a crowd favorite at live shows. The low rumbling sample that begins and ends the song is actually Mrs. June Carter Cash worked over in my old favorite program THONK then pitched as low as it could be while remaining audible.

The cover is the planet Mars color inverted. Maybe that's where my love affair with that planet began.

MICROARRAY

AMpron Aubide

artwork, layout and design by CONDITION:HUMAN

MICROARRAY was an tidy little EP of weird and wooly music made by my friend Matthew and I.

It was a weird one to make as Matthew was really into bizarre music like Yamatsuka Eye, Boredoms and Fennesz while I was primarily into Autechre, Richard H. Kirk, Aphex Twin and Tortoise. He wanted to make something truly out there and insanely weird while I wanted beats and synths and all that.

Somehow we managed to make four tracks. Wa Suste is almost entirely Matthew's work and until only recently I just didn't get it. These days I can hear the progression clearer and how it works as a song perhaps due to age and experience or maybe I've just gotten weirder. Eastern Sprints is more collaborative with the samples being recorded at random then taken and manipulated into something we turned into a song. URA and Return to Zero are stabs at apocalyptic jazz recorded on cassette that still rock in their own way, especially the way Matthew worked over the drums with a couple of stompboxes.

OLD ORGANICS was my first foray into the brave new world of CDs after years of homemade cassettes and dreams of something bigger. Recorded on eight and four tracks and DAT it was the realization of a dream. I actually had to go to see a friend who worked at the MIT Media Lab who helped me burned the CD because it was still the time when there weren't that many CD burners around (I myself didn't have one until 1999 or so) after another friend let me use the editing software at his job to master the tracks as well as I could after getting some advice from someone else about how to master and maybe something called normalizing.

The tracks are all pure 90's IDM with some sweet analog synths in there. I'd gotten my first sampler - an AKAI S900 - and it's all over most of the songs on this with its 12bit nastiness. It was the first music I felt comfortable playing for people since beginning to make music back in 1984. Before then I'd only played it for friends and family when I decide it wasn't doing me any good to keep hiding it. It was also the first music I'd felt truly confident about since transitioning away from industrial and synth pop which I'd been into for years before. By 1993 it was clear something new was coming out and I wanted to make a different kind of music.

OPAL is still one of my favorite songs to this day with the weird, wobbly bass and clicking drums; it still reminds me of CARS by Gary Numan for some reason. Y'SHUA DUB was an early foray into dub with a healthy dose of Cabaret Voltaire-style shortwave radio blasts. Permanent Crisis was my attempt at making something like Panasonic's first album, all tones but no melodies. VURT was one of the few pieces of music I wrote for the Jeff Noon book of the same name as was TWEAKY DAVE.